The initial reports on the stampede at Hathras carried the words: “More than 100 people, including women and children…were killed.” As the situation became clearer, the words changed a bit: “More than 121 people killed, mostly women and children.” The latest count is that 123 are dead so far – all of them women, apart from around 10 children, too young to be left at home.
One image in particular brought home the horror: that of row upon row of lifeless feet, some sporting silver anklets, others old and gnarled. They belonged to bodies with faces covered which were neatly laid out across the three seats of a tourist bus. The net that ‘Bhole Baba’ alias Narayan Sakar Hari, had cast drew in an amazingly large haul estimated to have been over two and a half lakh in number.
The catch comprised “mostly” women – women of all ages, who had come to his ‘satsang’ mesmerised by his white-suited, goggle-donning persona. To them he was the very embodiment of the divine, reviver of the dead, curer of all maladies, miracle man who can keep a sea of troubles at bay. They were prepared to travel long distances from their homes early that morning with their small stores of food and plastic bottles of water in order get through a punishingly hot day – it was 37°C at Hathras. In the process they had extinguished any sense of self in them. They came totally prepared to regard every word that escaped from the lips of their “baba” as infallible and gather the “miraculous” dust from his feet.
How did ‘Bhole Baba’ gather such a massive crowd, one that any politician would have died for?
Much like Big Tobacco when markets decline seeks to lure women and children to try its wares, ‘Bhole Baba’ gravitated towards the woman devotee. Having had to reinvent himself following his arrest in the year 2000 for nabbing the body of a dead girl after claiming that he would bring it back to life, he seems to have taken the business decision to prey on softer targets. His modus operandi, going by the observations a former schoolmate made to The Hindu, was to have women agents share tales of his magical prowess among local communities. It would follow that the people these agents were most likely to interact with were other women – invariably those who were poor, less lettered, and from castes subjected daily to a myriad forms of discrimination. These are the precise subjects who find themselves most vulnerable to false information and spurious spiritualists.
The unspeakably appalling stampede also provides a prism to view the shrinking of rationality in contemporary India. When the prime minister of the country tries to capture the imagination of the electorate by claiming to be non-biological, it is an acknowledgement of the power of the irrational. It also underlines the retreat of two important forces that could potentially have built a strong defence against the tide of superstition and sorcery that is today threatening to engulf us: a comprehensive school education and a functioning, socially connected media.
Let me confine myself to the second.
The post-independence generation understood the critical role that the media can play in combating irrationality. One just has to revisit the words of the Justice G.S. Rajadhyaksha’s team, comprising figures like economist V.K. R.V. Rao and editor Chalapati Rau, which in 1954 produced the First Report of the Press Commission. Its critique on the news and features carried in the newspapers of the day was strong and unrelenting.
On astrological predictions, for instance, it wrote:
“We wish to say nothing about astrology as such. We feel, however, that the spread of the habit of consultation of and reliance upon astrological predictions particularly of the nature and in the manner they are published at present is certain to produce an unsettling effect on readers. We would describe the practice of publishing such predictions as undesirable…They give room for unfounded fears, apprehensions or hopes of the most dangerous character which can have serious consequences on public order and public welfare.”
But what seemed to have irked the Commission most of all was the
“objectionable advertising which we feel should be put down by law of certain drugs and proprietary medicines…The harm that rises from such advertising is that patients might be deluded into dosing themselves with these medicines and delay medical examination or advice till the disease reaches an incurable stage.”
It also excoriated the peddling of talismans and magical cures through the pages of newspapers. ‘The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954’, had already come into in force by then, and expressly prohibited the advertisement of magic Remedies for Treatment of Certain Diseases and Disorders. The law had clearly stated that “No person carrying on or purporting to carry on the profession of administering magic remedies shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any magic remedy which directly or indirectly claims to be efficacious…”
Yet the Commission felt that this law did not go far enough.
Today, we have seen a complete reversal of even the intent to push back against superstition and irrationality, even as the “baba-rocracy” has grown in multifold ways with ashrams dotting the landscape across the country. Bogus products, especially those related to health, have gained a firm foothold on media content. The pre-programming space in satellite television provider, DISH TV, for instance, is a mélange of fakery, featuring cads of every description from tarot card readers and astrologers to drug manufacturers offering all manner of cures. They are presented as authentic thanks to fervent certifications from “ordinary” people, or actors pretending to be so. On its part, DISH TV takes care to prominently state that it does not endorse any of the claims made or products promoted.
Unsurprisingly, it was the pandemic that saw an unprecedented parading of junk products and pseudo-scientific babble in the news. By mid-June 2020, at the height of the public anxiety caused by COVID-19, the media began highlighting Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved having produced a drug called Coronil that claimed to cure the disease in a few days. Extensive television interviews with the yoga guru followed on mainline channels.
This was followed by breathless reporting about how the demand for Coronil had touched sales of around 10 lakh packs a day, with Patanjali Ayurved claiming that it had received Ayush certification “according to WHO norms” for the drug. This invited a swift clarification from the WHO stating that it had neither reviewed nor certified the efficacy of Coronil. Finally, the Indian Medical Association, taking a cue from the WHO, publicly decried the “unethical nature” of such a claim.
Four years later the case came up before the Supreme Court, which had strong words for the Uttarakhand government for allowing Patanjali Ayurved and its founders, Ramdev and Balkrishna, a free rein. “What about all the faceless people who have consumed these medicines stated to cure diseases which cannot be cured?” it had asked.
All godmen, faith healers, babas and charlatans, be they ‘Bhole Baba’ or ‘Yogi Baba’ end up prospering hugely at the expense of those “faceless people” who blindly believe in them.
Then there was one: just ANI
The Wire investigation, ‘How ANI Fought Off Bids From Two Companies It Shares Directors With, Won Rajasthan Govt Contract’ (July 4,) comes as yet more evidence of how deeply embroiled are supposed independent purveyors of news with the ruling party and government. The power of Asia News International, better known as ANI, which provides multimedia news feed to news organisations across the country, lies in the fact that it has come to control all access to government news and information.
As Newslaundry has reported, it was the only private media house permitted to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Mandir on January 22, when the temple was consecrated. It also has unprecedented access to the prime minister, flying with him on his foreign tours while capturing his images and soundbites, which are then fed to Indian news channels and newspapers: “This is why ANI has earned the sobriquet “always in Narendra’s interest”.
It is a comfortable relationship that has proved to be a win-win for the Modi government and the news agency, because ANI can be trusted to relay only what Caravan magazine characterised as the “government’s version of truth”. If any further evidence of this comfort is required then go no further than the interview Modi gave to its director of news, Smita Prakash, during his election campaign. It was the very first of an estimated 80 face-to-face interview sessions he had conducted during the campaign period.
The interesting aspect of the Wire investigation is how this suzerainty over access that ANI has vis-a-vis the central government is being replicated at the level of states ruled by the BJP. The Rajasthan government recently handed the contract to provide services for live streaming of the state government’s programmes to ANI.
This of course cannot be done without the news agency winning it through a proper tendering process involving at least three parties. Two other companies joined the bid that ANI eventually won. Fair and square, one could say, but for the intriguing fact that all directors of the four bidding entities were from the ANI Media stable. As reported in the story, “In all, four directors of ANI Media – Smita Prakash, Sanjiv Prakash, Ishaan Prakash, and Prem Prakash – are also directors of the competing firms for the contract involving public money.” They also share a common last name!
Incidentally, the older news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI), too had participated in the bidding process. However, they were bumped off the list of eligible contenders somewhere down the line.
Amazingly simple are the backroom fiddles that dress the “crime scene” to make it appear that the system of checks and balances is working. A good investigation like the one the Wire has just done, presented with relevant documents, goes some way to proving that there is always more to it than meets the eye. It just needs an alert reporter to ensure this.
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Led by donkeys
The just-concluded elections in the UK was enlivened by the antics of a group aptly titled ‘Led by Donkeys’, which has been in existence since 2019 during the stormy days of anti-Brexit activism. One of its recent high points was disrupting Nigel Farage’s speech at Essex some weeks ago. As Farage droned on an on, a banner descended behind him carrying a message which was essentially a critique of his pro-Putin stance on the Ukraine war. It showed a large image of a thumbs up from a smiling Putin, with the words, ‘I love Nigel’, emblazoned over it. Before long, ‘I love Nigel’ tees were selling by their dozens on Amazon.
‘Led by Donkeys’ comprise four blokes who got together to take on the Tories on their stance over Brexit, by using satire on social media. Initially anonymous, they outed their identities when people started making wild allegations about the group. They turned out to be your standard British lads with names like Ben Stewart, James Sadri, Oliver Knowles and Will Rose.
Their bag of tricks are many, but it first began with printing out angry tweets on Brexit gathered from Twitter, which were then blown up and displayed publicly. As Ben Stewart is reported to have put it, “Brexit seemed to have broken everything and we felt that the people who had brought it about weren’t being held to account for what they had promised the British public.”
This was expanded to include satirical videos and sting operations. Britain’s Rwanda policy came in for some bitter treatment with ‘Led By Donkeys’ actually capturing on film, through a hidden camera, the Rwandan ambassador’s insouciance over refugees in that country having been killed by the local police. His shocking response was, “Yes, it might have happened, but so what?” The video thus tore to shreds the claim made by the likes of Suella Braverman that conditions for refugees were safe in Rwanda. This conversation soon went viral on X, although there is no evidence to suggest that it embarrassed Braverman the slightest bit.
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Erroneous representation
Wire reader, Dr. Udai S. Singh, former assistant professor of Chemistry, Gannon University, writes:
“Your news portal is my ONLY source for news regarding India since all of the other media sites are heavily biased. I have tried to donate before but cannot because I am led to a rupees site that requires Indian information. I just wanted to point out that while reading a story on deaths in UP, the state of my birth (‘From Heat Waves to Snake Bites and Cattle Attacks, the List of Deadly ‘Disasters’ in UP Is Long’, June 24), I came across an erroneous representation. I have come across many venomous snakes while working at our charity in Village Gagaha, District Gorakhpur. I have never killed them. The representative photograph in your interesting story is that of the banded kukri snake (Oligodon arnensis). This snake, threatening as it may look, is non-venomous! You should rectify this representation. Too often I have seen villagers kill snakes (all of them are essential in controlling rodent populations which are a serious pest-control issue) without prejudice and with ignorance. Ignorance is the cause of fear in humans.”
My response: Thank you Dr Udai Singh, I will draw the attention of the desk to your observation.
Seas of disharmony
We received a mail from Muhammad Frango and Eesa Jebastian, requesting us to cover a story on religion-based discrimination in Toothukudi district, Tamil Nadu. Since they do not write in English, this letter was drafted by a well-wisher. We carry an initial excerpt from this mail to demonstrate how complex the issue of conversion continues to be.
We would like you to report serious Human Rights Violation/Religious-based Discrimination/Untouchability/Social-Boycott that are occurring in Tamil Nadu despite the DMK regime claiming that it is providing “Social Justice” to the citizens of the state.
I am Muhammad Frango, and my childhood friend Eesa Jebastian and I are fishermen residing in Kadaiyakudi, in Thoothukudi district. Our families and fellow fishermen, have migrated from other parts of the state and are Roman Catholics…In our area, there are three fishermen societies, backed by Christian missionaries from Thoothukudi, who rent tractors to push boats from the shore to the sea – assistance that fishermen need.
To get back to our story, I and Eesa converted to Islam in 2021 and 2022, of our own free will. Upset by our decision, powerful people in our area threatened us to either leave Kadaiyakudi or seek forgiveness from the Church. We remained true to our new faith. To ‘teach us a lesson’, Eesa was expelled from his position as secretary of one of the fishermen’s societies, the “Vinnarisi Meenava Sangam, stating that that only Christians can be part of it. This meant that he and his family cannot use the tractor run by that society.
In the meantime, we complained to the Fisheries department of Tamil Nadu and the Thoothukudi collector’s office regarding this matter. We were also called by police and government officials for a peace-meeting. Initially during these meetings, the Kadaiyakudi fishermen brazenly stated that “Muslims shouldn’t live in our area and we are not responsible if some violence happens”. No officers took action against them and the worst part is that some officers suggested that we would be better off leaving our land and begin fishing somewhere else.
As you are aware the right to convert is a constitutionally granted one…
This column will be taking a break for a few weeks. Readers are invited to continue sending their comments and queries to: ombudsperson@thewire.in